Top MUDs: What's your weapon of choice?

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Weapons are prolific in the top MUDs whether they are used for hunting, for combat, or for roleplay use in the case of the ritual knife or dagger. They add flavour and choice to our text lives and strategy to our combat. Some are heavy and slow, dealing limb crushing hits with every swing. Others are small and fast, occasionally able to be thrown and capable of delivering debilitating afflictions to our foes.

The choice of weapon you get is very much dependent upon the class you choose, although there are some professions that can get by without needing a weapon at all!

Speed knights with frighteningly fast rapiers in each hand will attempt to overwhelm you with the double slash, afflicting so fast that you eventually cannot move or cure (or at least so they hope) before they step in for the kill. On the other hand, a monk might seek to add an envenomed handaxe to their already formidable biological arsenal.

Perhaps you have ideas for shaping the weaponry-heavy combat environment. Would you like to play a Runewarden who can bring a stunning or 'bashing' option in with a large shield alongside a sword or battleaxe instead of the standard double slash? Maybe you want to end the existence of that pain in the behind, dirk-wielding Occultist? Or perhaps the idea of a Blademaster drawing and sheathing his sword twenty times a minute makes you laugh? Are you a forestal who thinks that bonding with the animals should be all the power you need? Or do you just really hate that gosh darned bard?

Many of us have ideas and want to see our personal classes 'buffed' making us forces to be reckoned with, top dogs of the rankings and feared champions or assassins. But, in the end, our games must bear some semblance of balance. If we strengthen one aspect and adopt the 'win at all costs' attitude, the best MUDs fast become one player games as we drain the enjoyment for others, pushing them away.

Conflict drives our text games, much of it combat-centric, and weaponry is used by most, if not all combatants. So, what are your thoughts?

I really think that 2h'ers need a worthwhile buff, but then they risk getting OP and people who don't use them end up whining. Personally, I've always been a big fan of 2h bludgeons like warhammers and whatnot, but gotta settle as an Axelord in Lusternia.

Wait, I think I know why 2h weapons aren't ever used... If they got a buff to the extent that knights would use them, they would be VERY effective in the hands of non knights... Perhaps modify DSL to increase the speed and/or damage of two handers?

The reality is a bit between both these opinions. Yes, skill matters, but yes, some weapons are simply better than others. Historically rapiers turned out better than broadswords, it wasn't simply a change of fashion.

I can only speak from the perspective of a Knight class, but I think there's enormous room for expansion for different weapon styles. The thing about being a Knight is that you can't actually fight effectively if using anything but two envenomed weapons at once. While almost all use either rapiers, or long/broadswords, with a few concessions to battleaxes, you'll never see a warhammer or other blunt object. I've always wanted to try out a flail or halberd to just to see how it might work, but there are just too many factors that stop me from using it or trying anything new.

1) That's about 16 and a half credits worth of lessons just to see what it's like.

2) Even if I do like it for hunting, it'll be useless in combat due to the fact that no class has skills than make it remotely useful.

3) Nobody makes them. Nobody.

4) If I did want to look into how it performs without committing to the lessons, there's no way. As there's no precedent of others using it as anything other than novelty, I have no idea how it would perform from others.

Some things that could make alternative weapons more viable would be:

1) Rebalanced stats so that every pair of one-handers has a roughly equivelant heavy weapon.

2) Allowed envenoming of blunt weapons

AND/OR

3) Added abilities to make up for the lack of Razeslash, double-venoms, (possibly) parrying, and other skills that require swords and swords only for their performance.

4) For maybe a month after implementation (Should it ever happen), refundable proficiency lessons so that people will be able to get a good working knowledge of the quirks of each weapon. We already know from fellow Achaeans how current weapons perform before comitting, but these would be a fresh slate.

For Shatter. Tons of uses, even if it just opens up the pathway to making illusions realistic and fool the enemy/systems. Most combatants I would imagine could easily find a use for them if they thought about it. But for normal combat, it's terrible idea with the way it's set up right now, yes.

I am so sick of knights running around with rapiers. Think about it. Here's a class wearing plate mail armor using thin-bladed rapiers. From a historical standpoint, medieval knights used longswords and broadswords. For a few reasons. One, you got the cutting damage from the edge. Two, you got blunt damage from the sheer weight of the sword. And three, you were going up against other knights. You needed a weapon that could stand up to your opponent's armor.

I know, I know, this is a fantasy game. But keeping stuff like this in mind never hurts.

One forerunner to the rapier was the estoc, which was designed to pierce plate. Not to mention that longswords and broadswords actually didn't weigh terribly much, and that the actual swords these plated knights would be using, while called longswords, were more a D&D bastard sword than longsword. And if they wanted to bludgeon with it, they'd grip by the blade and swing the hilt at you. Or, ya know, they'd just try and pierce between your plates.

There are some, albeit few, uses for blunt weapons, even for a knight. A good flail can make a difference if you're throwing shatter into your combos, but what I'd honestly like to see is DSL usable with other weapontypes - I'm fully on board with that. Being stuck with "use two rapiers and STAB FASTER" is a sad state for a plated powerhouse.

Some variety in weapon usage would be nice. Certainly when it comes to PvP, the double rapier reigns supreme (for a knight, at least). Part of the problem is that afflictions are vital to good combat and the double rapier setup allows for the best stacking. For blunts and two-handers to be remotely viable they need methods to either inflict considerably more raw damage or associated skills that can compare to a decent affliction stack.

in lusternia knights have a veriety of specs. though in most specs the speed weapon in that group is almost always used. so it's a little redundent but, atleast you have more options. though there's not really a 2 handed bludgen weapon unless you count the cavalier spec but, that's not compleatly a blunt 2 hander since it has a sharp point.

They could have an alternate attack to DSL in Chivalry, something meant to make use of a 2Her with a different name and flavor text than DSL, but balanced to be as good. Both abilities'd be in the tree, but you'd only be able to use one, anyway, so it wouldn't be any different.

I concur. It is a real shame such cool weapons do not have their own niche in the game outside of being a collector's item. Allowing twohanded weapons to have extra features such as knockback, prone, disarm in addition to their damage all in the same attack might be a good way to fix this perhaps. Many of them would also knock someone off balance when used properly. Fighting against someone with a heavy axe is no easy task if they have the initiative. So much can be done for these truly awesome weapons. They are meant to kill through tons of overall damage and insane offensive power.

It is truly a sad state of affairs for twohanded weapons right now in Achaea. Truly piss poor performance. Hopefully the powers that be will step up to the task of truly ramping up these weapons. All weapon options should be made to be very viable. I am not a combat expert, but these days it seems like rapiers or lose. *shakes head*

There need to be skills that actually work with two-handers. DSL simply doesn't work, monks don't use them, blademasters have their own weapons, etc. Unless you're rocking the classless life and just use Weaponry, Riding, Avoidance, Survival, and Vision, you're going to have a hard time.

A bastard sword or a two-hander will be faster than a smaller sword because yer using two hands, and having two swords doesn't equal attacking twice as much or any such nonsense. All stuff that bugs me about gaming swords.

Surprise is my favorite weapon. Hit them with something they didn't expect. If I can't do that I like cataclysm as a weapon. I can hit them but they can't hit me. Maybe I should have been a serpent sniper.

It's a relief to me that I don't have to worry about using forged weapons. Mage's staff for me. I did get it customized using Mayan crowns, as "a dark-hued bloodwood staff"--gives it a bit more character.

Since playing a note that makes ears bleed just makes people think you're a bad musician, there are other bard attacks. Like Shadowchord, which curdles their insides with poison and makes them vomit shadows.

I <3 my scythe. Seriously such a kickass weapon. Although hand-to-hand bashing has a certain flair to it as well. Something different than the usual sword / dagger / mace stuff. I think I'd enjoy whips as well, haha.